Happy Day After Thanksgiving – Why I’m Thankful

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I certainly did. I started off the day at 7 am, waking up and getting a bunch of gear together to play football. My brother, a friend from high school and a foreign exchange student from China loaded up and left at 8 am to Sycamore Jr. High in Cincinnati. Their football field is made of turf and open to the public throughout the year.

Unfortunately, there were a ton of other people at this location, so when we met up with our group of 14 people, there was no room on the football field.

We improvised and went to a local park. The game went on until 11 am, whereupon we all had to leave to make it back for our thanksgiving meals. My brother suffered a sprained ankle, someone else broke a finger and we all left with bumps and bruises, but it was a successful morning of football.

From there, we ate, laughed and watched football on television.

My grandma was busy cleaning everyone out at the poker table, leading my cousin to presume that she was somehow cheating. She wasn’t. My grandma is just a freak of nature when it comes to playing cards.

Another cousin showed up later, showing off his new puppy. Yong, the foreign exchange student, wanted to go Black Friday shopping to get the full American experience, so he left with another group of friends at 10 pm and didn’t get back until 7 am. I surely wasn’t going to go with them, though, because I had already been awake since 7 am, so with all the festivities I was ready for bed.

My thanksgiving was unlike many thanksgivings. Not everyone is fortunate enough to have family to laugh with throughout thanksgiving or friends that are willing to wake up early in the morning to beat on each other in some random park in Cincinnati. For that, I am truly thankful. I’m appreciative of not only what I have but who I share it with.